AP News, June 11th, 2007
GREENSBORO, Pa. _ Giving sultry looks and sexy smiles to the camera, 12 Pittsburgh-area women recently posed at Monongahela historical sites, baring it all _ or almost all _ to create a charity-driven calendar. The catch?
The nearly nude ladies are all in their 70s and 80s, driven to adventure by a desire to raise money for a historical society in Monongahela, a small community 17 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
Overcoming fears the priest would walk by during a photo shoot or embarrassing their children and grandchildren, the women _ all well-known members of the tight-knit community _ are now eagerly awaiting the calendar's debut next month. The money it generates will go to the Monongahela Area Historical Society.
"One of the advantages of being old is that you can do anything you want and get away with it," said 80-year-old Lois Phillips, who as Miss September was photographed in the back seat of a 1968 Mercury convertible.
The calendar was the brainchild of 80-year-old Lorys Crisafulli. She came up with the idea when she saw the movie Calendar Girls, a 2003 flick starring Helen Mirren in which a group of British women publish a nude calendar to raise money for cancer research.
"I thought, why don't we do that in Monongahela?" she told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "We need something to put us on the map, to get us going."
Crisafulli spent the next few weeks finding sponsors, a free photographer and an eager group of septuagenarians and octogenarians with enough spunk to show some flesh.
A former 5th grade teacher, Crisafulli is about to become better known as Miss January, who lounges in a black convertible covered in pearls, holding a champagne glass in one hand and dangling slinky sandals from the other.
Some of the other photos are more risque.
Miss April, Esther Cox, poses in a pasture, nothing but a pink umbrella covering her 75-year-old body. Miss December, Sondra Odelli Bordini, gives a sultry glance from behind a poinsettia centerpiece with two strategically placed red Christmas balls.
